A Smile Masking A Potential Seed Of Destruction

A parent might say that they know their kids very well. Perhaps some do, and perhaps some do not. According to National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five young students between the age of thirteen and eighteen suffer from a mental health condition. The condition could be minor such as an anxiety disorder to highly damaging one such as major depression. This directly correlates to the fact that suicide is the third largest killer of young adults from the age of ten to twenty-four. Nine out of ten of the victims of suicide deteriorated from a mental health problem.

A happy exterior could be hiding a serious depression.

Sometimes a teenager who is at risk and depressed could be seen by their parent as acting moody. According to the Telegraph, the mark of depression and moodiness often overlapped during the developing teenage years. Parents might dismiss a serious health complication as a teen being a teen because of stereotypes. When these things happen, researches believe that young person is more likely to commit suicides.

“Over time, there is less support within the family,” says David Baine of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “However, communication skills about mental health never increase to accommodate that loss of family support.” People and organizations throughout Sacramento are trying to address these problems within their own communities. One such organization is the Youth Mental Health First Aid program which is aiming to train people to detect early sign of mental illness in teens and young adults. Their program offers free training to volunteers through federal grants which hope to offer relief for youth mental health problems. They have a “5-step action plan to help a young person developing a mental health problem or in crisis” which helps to de-escalate a crisis situation which involves teens with mental health problems with the risk of suicide. Upcoming mental health training dates can be found here.